Every year, a dedicated group of retired Indian-American doctors from Cleveland organizes a yatra—Hindi for “pilgrimage”—into India’s tribal lands to provide free medical care to their homeland’s most isolated over an intensive 10-day period.

The annual grassroots expedition has treated tens of thousands—providing necessities like surgeries to the suffering, prosthetics to the disabled and hope to those with nowhere left to turn.

Yatra: The Documentary

During the 18th annual Yatra in January 2018, 26 volunteer doctors ventured from America into the tribal lands of southeast India’s Araku Valley to serve thousands patients across 12 villages—many who’ve never before seen a doctor.

Granted full access to the 2018 expedition, Yatra: The Documentary chronicles the Yatra’s inspiring, emotional and unpredictable turns and explores the humanity that unites the doctors with patients from the land they once called home.

The film will be used to bring awareness to the Yatra and highlight issues facing tribal communities. Once completed, it will be submitted to numerous festivals on the documentary film circuit.

POWER IN NUMBERS

Yatra expeditions have traversed all corners of India—from the mountains of Uttarakhand to the beaches of Kerala; eastern Gujarat’s tribal belt to West Bengal’s wetlands.

Over the years, Yatra doctors have saved lives through simple procedures like breast and cervix cancer screenings and changed lives using technologies like 3D hand printers and mobile eyecare hospitals.

During the 2018 Yatra, which took place January 19 to 29 in southeast India’s Andhra Pradesh, the doctors aimed to:

Serve 5,000 patients across12 villages

Each day, Yatra doctors and volunteers broke into teams that suited each village’s pre-determined needs.

Perform 500 cataract surgeries

Donations collected at fundraisers in Cleveland went toward eye procedures to treat cataracts, glaucoma and more.

Provide 250 limbs to amputees

In collaboration with the non-profit Jaipur Foot, amputees were fitted for prosthetics in November 2017 and received them during the Yatra.